And Jesus said: “my children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new
commandment love one another.” Did I read that right?? Did Jesus just say
what I think he said??
Now, I’m not confused about the “love one another” part. I get that. I’m just puzzled by
Jesus use of the word NEW: Would his disciples have considered a commandment about love to be new??
After all Isn’t that what the 10 Commandments are all about? Love God by
having no other God’s. Honor your father and mother, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t tell lies about others, don’t wish you had the stuff other people have, aren’t these the ways we show our love to others?
And I thought Jesus said elsewhere in the Gospels, all the law and the prophets can be
summed up in these two commandments: love God and love our neighbor. . .
So, what’s so new about what Jesus was saying?? But wait, Jesus offers a bit of clarification, telling his disciples that “loving one another” will be the sure way others will know that they are his disciples. . .
In other words, Jesus seems to be saying that there’s this new commandment he is giving them that will be the ABSOLUTE AND ULTIMATE of who they are, it will become their dominate trait, it will make them different from everyone else –and be the declaration to others that they are followers of Christ. . .
But isn’t that what everyone was supposed to be doing already??
Well, yes, and no. There is no question that that the 10 Commandments as well as the other 613 Jewish laws required people to act and behave in a certain way.
Some described what people had to do, others described what was forbidden or should
be avoided. They all had a do or do not quality about them. And they certainly served a worthwhile purpose, keeping people from doing anything unjust or harmful.
But many of them described a kind of minimal standard, that is they provided the bare
minimum requirement for people to obey and did not necessarily describe the ideal or the norm. And most of all, many of these laws and commandments did not really seem to address a person’s attitude at al, they did not describe what was supposed to be
going on within a person as they obeyed what was being legislated.
And so one could, in a sense, harbor all sorts of bad feelings and attitudes on the inside and yet faithfully be following the law on the outside.
And so people may have obeyed, but been bitter about doing it. People may have obeyed, but resented being told what to do. People may have obeyed but still wished harm on others, or remained jealous of others, or ignored the needs of others, writing them off, all the while saying they were keeping the law. And none of this is true love.
You see, once we start watering down what we call love we start moving further and further from what it truly is. And if that watering down is drastic enough, into a lukewarm or conditional version of love, I’ll love you if you love me, then we should probably not even call it love. And this is the reason, because every ounce of love we show others DOES NOT originate in ourselves it has its origin in God.
That’s who God is, God is love, and there are no conditions on it. And it isn’t doled out
every once in awhile. It’s not given out according to our performance.
No, God love is relentless, reckless, unconditional and unceasing.
It is a force able to transform every person in every situation. AND that’s the love Jesus
expects us to share with one another, the love that comes to us from God who has loved us first. And so when Jesus gives this NEW commandment to love one another, he is inviting us to love as God loves. Jesus is asking us to not pick and choose
who or when or why we are going to love, but to simply do it day-in-and-day-out person after person. And it can’t be done begrudgingly, then it becomes just a chore. And it can’t be done because there is something in it for us, that’s just another form of selfishness.
And it can’t be done only toward those we like or those we agree with, that’s more like a
private club. . . No, Jesus wants us to love in the fullest possible way, love in an extreme kind of way that is visible to all, in a way that show that our FAITH actually makes a difference in how we live our lives. In other words, Jesus wants the love we have for God and for one another to be just that LOVE, and not some water down version
of it. This is how all will know that you are my disciples. . .
It is kind of amazing that as Jesus neared the end of his earthly life, this is what he
wanted to make sure his disciples understood.
Remember, Jesus said lots and lots of things over the course of his public ministry, he told countless stories and made all sorts of inspiring and authoritative pronouncements.
And yet he doesn’t remind the disciples of ANY of those things. Love is what is on his mind, and he wants to make sure it stays on the minds of his followers as well.
SO IS LOVE ON OUR MINDS? and in our hearts?
Not the diluted love that just looks like being sort of nice. Not a watered down love that looks like people with much just sharing a little. Not a sort of love that forgives small stuff and not that stuff that really hurts.
And not a so-called love where people just do good to people who are good to them.
NO, I mean God-love, the only love that can really be called love. Love that is relentless,
reckless, unconditional, and unceasing. The type of love that is possible only with the grace of God.